Hooker's Contributions to Geographical Botany 307 



said : " I shall to the day of my death keep up my full interest in 

 Geographical Distribution, but I doubt whether I shall ever have 

 strength to come in any fuller detail than in the Origin to this grand 

 subject 1 ." This must be always a matter for regret. But we may 

 gather some indication of his later speculations from the letters, the 

 careful publication of which by F. Darwin has rendered a service to 

 science, the value of which it is difficult to exaggerate. They admit 

 us to the workshop, where we see a great theory, as it were, in the 

 making. The later ideas that they contain were not it is true public 

 property at the time. But they were communicated to the leading 

 biologists of the day and indirectly have had a large influence. 



If Darwin laid the foundation, the present fabric of Botanical 

 Geography must be credited to Hooker. It was a happy partnership. 

 The far-seeing, generalising power of the one was supplied with data 

 and checked in conclusions by the vast detailed knowledge of the 

 other. It may be permitted to quote Darwin's generous acknowledge- 

 ment when writing the Origin : " I never did pick any one's pocket, 

 but whilst writing my present chapter I keep on feeling (even when 

 differing most from you) just as if I were stealing from you, so much 

 do I owe to your writings and conversation, so much more than mere 

 acknowledgements show 2 ." Fourteen years before he had written 

 to Hooker : " I know I shall live to see you the first authority in 

 Europe on... Geographical Distribution 3 ." We owe it to Hooker that 

 no one now undertakes the flora of a country without indicating 

 the range of the species it contains. Bentham tells us : " after 

 De Candolle, independently of the great works of Darwin... the first 

 important addition to the science of geographical botany was that 

 made by Hooker in his Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania, 

 which, though contemporaneous only with the Origin of Species, was 

 drawn up with a general knowledge of his friend's observations and 

 views 4 ." It cannot be doubted that this and the great memoir on 

 the Distribution of Arctic Plants were only less epoch-making than 

 the Origin itself, and must have supplied a powerful support to the 

 general theory of organic evolution. 



Darwin always asserted his "entire ignorance of Botany 5 ." But 

 this was only part of his constant half-humourous self-deprecia- 

 tion. He had been a pupil of Henslow, and it is evident that he 

 had a good working knowledge of systematic botany. He could find 

 his way about in the literature and always cites the names of plants 

 with scrupulous accuracy. It was because he felt the want of such 

 a work for his own researches that he urged the preparation of the 

 Index Kewensis, and undertook to defray the expense. It has been 



1 More Letters, n. p. 7. ' 2 Life and Letters, n. p. 148 (footnote). 3 Ibid. i. p. 336. 

 4 Pres. Addr. (1869), Proc. Linn. Soc. 186869, p. Ixxiv. 8 Mare Letters, i. p. 400. 



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